A lightweight end-to-end network architecture in which the transport layer is a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer is disclosed. The network architecture also includes a Hyper Text Transport Protocol (HTTP) layer, a Messages over TCP (MT) protocol layer, a Message over Device-initiated HTTP (MDH) protocol layer, a multiplexing layer, and a facility layer. The MDH and MT layers are used in the alternative. The MT layer has a low overhead requirement. The MDH layer provides an enhanced firewall traversal capability.